Experimental and analytical investigation on friction resistance force between buried coated pressurized steel pipes and soil

This paper presents an analytical approach for estimating frictional resistance to pipe movement at soil and external pipe surface of buried coated pressurized steel pipes relative to the internal thrust force. The proposed analytical method was developed based on 36 experiments, which involved three coating types (cement mortar (CM), polyurethane type-I (PT-I), prefabricated plastic tape (PPT)) on pipes’ surfaces, three different soils (pea-gravel (PG), sand (S), silty-clay (SC)), and four simulated over burden depths above the pipe’s crown. Investigation showed frictional resistance decreased with increasing over burden depth above the pipe’s crown. The degree of frictional resistance at the pipe-soil interface was found to be in the order of PG > SC > S for all coating variations and overburden depths. CM coated pipe buried in all three types of soil produced significantly higher frictional resistance as compared to other coating types. Based on experimental data, the developed analytical introduced a dimensionless factor “Z”, which included effects of types of coatings, soil, and overburden depths for simplified rapid calculation. Analysis showed that the method provided a better prediction of frictional resistance forces, in comparison to previous analytical methods, which were barely close in predicting friction resistance for different coating variations, soil types, and overburden depths. Friction resistance force values reported herein could be considered conservative.